


Just Like In the Fairy Tales

by TurquoiseDragon



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Arranged Marriage, Bodyguard Otabek Altin, Dragons, King Victor Nikiforov, M/M, Prince Yuri Plisetsky
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-17
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2018-11-15 04:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11222928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurquoiseDragon/pseuds/TurquoiseDragon
Summary: In Prince Yuri's family, everyone had to get married when they reached sixteen. Now that Yuri has turned sixteen, there is only one person that he wants to marry, and he plans on finding a way to make that happen.





	1. Chapter 1

Prince Yuri, followed of course by his bodyguard Otabek, wandered slowly through the halls of the palace, heading in the direction of the throne room where his brother Victor and Yuuri, Victor’s husband, would be waiting. He wondered why they had asked to see him, especially so formally like this. Was he in trouble? Had he forgotten to go to some ball or something? Whatever was going on, Yuri knew he would be finding out in just a minute as one of the guards pushed open the door for him.

“Yurio!” Came Victor’s happy greeting as soon as Yuri entered, refusing to bow as always. 

“That’s not my name,” Yuri grumbled in response, “Why am I here?”

In Yuri’s opinion, getting straight to the point would be the best option for wherever this conversation was headed.

“Well, you see, you’re sixteen now,” said Yuuri, standing up.

“Yeah, so?”

“Yurio! How could you forget? Everyone in our royal family gets married at sixteen!” Cut in Victor.

Yuri’s eyes widened, and he suddenly became unable to speak. How could he have forgotten? He’d been dreading this day for years ever since he found out that it was a tradition! He’d begun to dread it even more upon finding out that the only person he’d actually be okay with marrying wouldn’t even be considered, seeing as he wasn’t a prince, princess or knight. 

“The wedding will be this fall, of course,” said Victor excitedly, “We haven’t quite decided on who you’ll be marrying yet, but the advisors have several people considered...”

Yuri knew exactly who Victor’s terrible advisors had in mind; the children of all the people they wanted to become partners in business with. Yuri did not want to marry a single one of them. In fact, he was able to say in full confidence that he hated most of them for some reason or another. 

“Yurio, are you listening? Is everything okay?” 

It was Yuuri, who had somehow ended up directly in front of Yuri without him noticing. 

Everything was most definitely not okay. How could it be, having something like this happen? In his sadness and anger (mostly anger), Yuri did the only thing he could think of.

“That is not my name!” He yelled, turning around and sprinting out the door.

He knew that Otabek, who had been waiting outside, would follow.


	2. Chapter 2

Yuri tore through the palace’s halls, making it back to his room in record time. He collapsed onto his bed and curled up, wanting to forget that entire conversation. His anger was beginning to slowly fade, becoming replaced by sadness. Victor hadn’t had to go through this, so why should he? 

“It’s not fair,” he muttered.

“What’s not fair, Yura?” Otabek sat down beside him, gently rubbing his back.

“They’re going to make me marry some dumb prince,” he responded bitterly, “And it’s not fair. Victor didn’t have to.”

Otabek paused.

“Don’t you remember why?” He finally asked.

Yuri said nothing, shaking his head.

“Victor’s sixteenth birthday came at around the time your parents died. There were so many problems, and with the war that came after, everyone forgot about the tradition. You probably don’t remember, I barely do. We were both so young.” 

Yuri glared at his blankets, pondering the information.

“That still doesn’t make it fair,” he said.

“No, no it doesn’t,” agreed Otabek. “Do you at least know who it’s going to be?”

“Not yet.” Yuri frowned.

“Good. That means there’s still time for you to get out of a terrible marriage.”

Yuri was confused. What did Otabek mean? He really doubted he would be able to avoid any of this. That is, unless there was another war. Could he do that, start a war? Probably, but that wouldn’t be a very smart idea.

“What do you mean?” He asked.

“If nothing is set in stone yet, that means there’s still a way to get you out of marrying someone you don’t want,” Otabek paused, thinking for a moment. “Hey, remember those fairy tales we used to read as kids, back when I was your servant and not your guard?”

“Yeah, of course. What about them?” 

“Well,” continued Otabek, “Victor used to like them too. Lot’s of them were about competitions where princes and knights would compete in things to marry a princess. What if you tried to convince Victor and Yuuri to hold one of those?”

Yuri cut him off.

“First of all, I’m not a princess. And second of all, there are so many problems with that! What if someone terrible ends up winning?”

“Of course you aren’t a princess, but you didn’t let me finish. You could have someone in on it with you, and you could help them win. I know that’s not exactly right or anything, but it would work,” Otabek said.

Otabek was right. It could work. 

“Okay, but who would be in on it? I don’t want to marry anyone I know.” Yuri frowned.

So, that was a lie, but it’s not like telling the truth would help anything. Besides, he really only wanted to marry Otabek. As if he was actually going to say that out loud. 

“What about me? What if I was in the competition, assuming it even happened,” Otabek asked, sounding almost nervous. 

“Really? You would do that?” Yuri asked hopefully, eyes widening. 

“Of course, Yura. You’re my best friend, of course I’d try to help you.”

Oh, right. Best friends. Was that really why Otabek was offering to potentially marry him? 

“You realize this is a big deal, right Beka?” 

“I know it’s a big deal. And I wouldn’t have offered to help if I didn’t want to.”

Yuri tried to keep himself from blushing but quickly failed.

“Oh, okay. Good. Let’s go suggest this idea, then”


	3. Chapter 3

Yuri didn’t end up having to go too far, as Victor and Yuuri had followed him, albeit at a slower pace. As soon as they spotted him, the two quickly caught him in a tight hug. Yuri immediately shoved them off. 

“Yurio, we know you’re upset about this,” Victor began, “but you-”

“Actually,” Yuri cut him off, “I was thinking we could do this a little differently.”

“Differently? What do you mean?” Asked Yuuri. 

Yuri glanced at Otabek, who responded with a subtle thumbs up. 

“We hold a competition. Whoever I marry will have to win it,” Yuri responded.

Victor gasped happily.

“That’s a great idea Yurio! It’s just like a fairy tail! Oh, I’ll go tell the advisors. Come on, Yuuri!”

With that, he grabbed Yuuri’s hand and began to pull him back toward the throne room. 

Yuri and Otabek stared after them in a surprised silence. 

“Well, that didn’t take much convincing,” said Otabek when Victor and Yuuri had turned the corner.

“It didn’t, but he seemed to like it… So, I guess this is happening,” replied Yuri.

“Yeah. I guess it is.” 

Yuri turned to look at Otabek, finding that Otabek was already watching him.

\----- 

Later that day, Yuri was given a message that the advisors had approved the idea. 

“So, it says they’ve decided on three events, and they’re sending out an open invitation for princes and knights tomorrow,” Yuri informed Otabek as he skimmed the page. 

“Great. Does it say what the events are? We should start figuring out how I can win them.” 

The two were sitting on Yuri’s bed. Actually, Otabek was sitting. Yuri, on the other hand, lolled across the bed on his back. He rested his head on Otabek’s lap, greatly enjoying the fact that Otabek was currently playing with his hair. 

“Uh… Yuri searched the page. “Yes. You’re going to have to be judged on dancing at a masquerade, outsmart a dragon, and get through a maze. It also says I’m not supposed to tell anyone about the events.” Yuri smiled. “Oh well.” 

Otabek leaned over Yuri, reading the page for himself.

“The competition will be in a month. That should give us enough time to prepare.”


	4. Chapter 4

A month later, Yuri sat on the windowsill of one of the towers, watching the ships carrying the competitors arrive in the harbor. Otabek sat with him, also silently watching as well as making sure he couldn’t fall out. 

“Do they think flashy ships will help them win or something? It’s ridiculous,” Yuri scoffed.

“Who knows. Look at that one,” Otabek replied, pointing to one of the ships that was painted a metallic gold. 

Yuri rolled his eyes and hopped down from where he sat. Otabek copied him, choosing instead to lean against the tower wall. 

“Tonight’s the masquerade. Do you want to practice dancing one more time before you have to go get ready?” Asked Yuri, trying not to sound too hopeful. 

All throughout the past month, Otabek and Yuri had been preparing for the upcoming competition. These preparations included dancing.

Yuri quickly discovered that he absolutely loved dancing with Otabek. Otabek was a good dancer already, but with Yuri’s teaching had become the best dance partner he had ever worked with. Well, maybe Yuri was a bit biased, but Otabek was definitely one of the best. 

“I don’t know, Yura.” Otabek glanced out the window. “I’m not sure how much time we have. Most people are already here, and it will take some time for us to get ready.”

Yuri frowned. Otabek was right. Besides, they were going to be dancing together later, and it wasn’t like either of them truly needed the extra practice. 

“Okay. Let’s go, then.”

Yuri and Otabek descended the long spiral staircase before separating and heading in two separate directions, Yuri toward his room and Otabek to his own. 

The plan was for Otabek to leave the castle and arrive again anonymously in a suit of armor at the same time as the rest of the competitors. He would be posing as a knight, and therefore would remain anonymous by wearing the armor until he won. 

Yuri wouldn’t be going to watch the official arrivals, meaning he could take his time with getting ready. Some servants had already laid out his outfit for the ball, which, he realized with a small smile, happened to be purple with tiger print accents. 

He did his hair in an elaborate braid, then sat down in his favorite chair by the window while he waited for someone to announce that it was time for the ball. Although his view wasn’t as good as it had been in the tower, he continued to watch the ships as they peacefully floated in place.


	5. Chapter 5

Soon enough, a servant showed up and told him it was time to go. Yuri was not looking forward to this too much. Although he would be able to dance with Otabek, he would have to dance with the others as well. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to spend too long with any of them. 

Reaching the ballroom, Yuri waited for a moment as the doors were slowly and dramatically opened. He fought the urge to roll his eyes as an audible, awed gasp could be heard over the music that accompanied his entrance. 

Yuri walked slowly down the stairs, eyes on the competitors, who were standing apart from the rest of the guests in a line of ten at the center of the ballroom. He immediately knew which one was Otabek, but after a while he could recognize some of the faces beneath the half-masks. Just as he had expected, all nine others were princes, the sons of the rulers Victor’s advisors had wanted to form business partnerships with. Yuri hoped that there wouldn’t be too much fuss from the other countries when their princes all lost. 

As Yuri reached the bottom of the stairwell, the music quieted and his brother’s voice rang out through the ballroom. 

“Welcome, everyone, to both our kingdom and today’s masquerade ball. As you all know, this marks the first part of our competition for Prince Yuri’s hand in marriage. In this competition, the princes...,” Victor trailed off for a moment, “And knight will be judged and awarded points for their skills in dancing. Thank you all, and enjoy your time here.” 

Polite applause from all of the guests followed the end of Victor’s short speech. It was clear that he hadn’t really expected any knights in the competition. Otabek was in the competition as a knight, though, and there was nothing Victor could do about it, thought Yuri with a smug smile. 

The music played again, Yuri danced with the princes one by one. He didn’t pay too much attention to their names as they introduced themselves. Frankly, he didn’t care. He also didn’t pay too much attention to their conversation as they danced, simply smiling and nodding along. None of them were exceptionally great dancers (although one of them was exceptionally bad). 

Finally, the current song ended and Yuri’s time dancing with the ninth prince ended as well. Otabek was last in line, and Yuri was glad that he would soon be done dancing for the night. Just as the others had done, Otabek came up to Yuri and bowed, offering a hand to lead him to the center of the room. Yuri accepted happily, and as the music played, Otabek began to lead Yuri in the complicated dance the two had been practicing all that last month. 

“How were the others?” Asked Otabek in a whisper.

“Terrible,” replied Yuri, just as quietly. 

Otabek chuckled, bringing a genuine smile from Yuri. They didn’t talk much after that, focusing on the dancing. Soon, this song came to an end as well, and it was announced that the judges had their scores. 

Yuri had been told that the scoring system for the entire competition would be that each of the four judges would give up to ten points, making the top score possible for each part of the competition fourty points. At the end of the entire competition, the one with the most points would win. 

Each name was announced, followed by their total. Yuri again ignored the names, focusing solely on the scores; thirty-five, thirty-one, twenty-eight, thirty-seven, twenty-nine, thirty-six, thirty, twelve (Yuri wasn’t surprised at that one, his feet had been stepped on several times.), thirty-one, and lastly Otabek’s score. He had also gotten a thirty-six. 

Yuri breathed a sigh of relief. Otabek hadn’t gotten the highest score, but he certainly hadn’t gotten the lowest either. He had actually done fairly well, being tied for second. They just had to keep up a streak of very high scores, and Otabek would easily win.


	6. Chapter 6

A few hours after the ball, Yuri snuck out of the castle while the staff was distracted by helping the guests settle into their rooms. Hiding in the shadows, he headed over to where he knew the second part of the competition would be held. He had already been told that the competitors would be outsmarting a dragon, but that alone wouldn’t be much help to Otabek. He needed to figure out what they would be outsmarting the dragon for. 

The competition was set to be in a field, surrounded by a barrier and stands for spectators, and backed by a large pile of rocks with a cavern in the center. The cavern was slowly being filled with gold in all forms, shapes, and sizes carried in from a small wagon off to one side.

“So they must have to steal some of the gold…” Yuri whispered to himself, tiptoeing over for a closer look. 

As he approached, he began to hear the muffled voices of those setting the task up. 

“Right, then. We’ll just put the kid’s throne in the middle, and we should be all done.”

By kid’s throne, did they mean his? Maybe… Though he wasn’t a kid. And if so, why were they putting his throne in a dragon’s hoard? Yuri now had a lot of questions. Hoping for some answers, he strained his ears to hear more. 

“I can’t believe they’re actually going through with this,” one of the men said, shaking his head. 

“I can’t either. How do they know that those boys can actually succeed at this?” Replied another. 

“They don’t. But I certainly hope they can. I don’t think a barbequed prince would be all that great for the country,” a third man chucked, and the others began to laugh with him. 

Suddenly, Yuri realized just what the next competition had in store, though he didn’t find it nearly as funny as the men who were setting up seemed to. The competitors weren’t going to be stealing gold from a dragon’s hoard. They were going to be stealing him. 

Feeling a bit sick to his stomach as his brain went over all the things that could possibly go wrong, Yuri snuck back to the castle. He wasn’t scared though, he told himself. He just had a healthy amount of the normal apprehension anyone would get before being given to a dragon to guard. 

Yuri groaned. It wasn’t the dark ages anymore! People should know better than to try to pull off something like this! Like the men had said, who knew if any of the competitors could even manage to steal him from a dragon? Yuri couldn’t believe that the advisors had agreed to go through with this. 

As soon as he made it back into the castle, Yuri ran as fast as he could to Otabek’s room to tell him what the competition had in store. Well, both that and to get a nice, long, comforting hug, which, after everything he had learned, seemed like it would be really great right about then.


	7. Chapter 7

Just as he had thought, a hug was exactly what Yuri needed. After he told Otabek what was in store for the next competition, Otabek didn’t seem as nervous as Yuri had expected him to be. Maybe that was a good thing? 

As he sat rigidly in his throne the next day, he sincerely hoped it was. The competitors wouldn’t be arriving for another hour, but Yuri had been dressed up and made to sit in his throne long beforehand so that the dragon handlers could make sure that he didn’t end up, well, barbequed. (Though they never actually said that, just that they needed to ‘introduce them’.)

“Alright Yuri, here comes your dragon,” said one of the handlers.

Yuri couldn’t tell which one said it, his eyes were too tightly shut. He nodded his acknowledgement and no more than a few seconds later he could hear the heavy footfalls of the dragon bounding toward him until he could feel its hot breath on the side of his face. Well, this was the end. 

Except, the end didn’t exactly come. What did come, however, was one of the dragon’s gigantic paws on Yuri’s shoulder and… its tongue licking his cheek. Then it headbutted him. Hard. 

Yuri cringed, his eyes flying open. He attempted to wipe the drool the dragon had left on his face away. Said dragon was flailing around in what looked like a funny little dance. It chirped happily when it noticed him looking and ran back over. Yuri gasped.

“Puma…?” He whispered in shock. 

The dragon chirped happily. It was Puma, Yuri realized excitedly. Three years ago, the advisors had decided that a dragon was an extremely inappropriate and dangerous pet for a prince to have, and therefore Puma Tiger Scorpion, Yuri’s beloved color-point ragdoll dragon, just had to go. Yuri had been heartbroken, of course, and very angry. He had never really gotten over it, and neither had Otabek, actually. They both loved the dragon. But now the dragon was back, and luckily for Yuri, dragons have amazing memories. By the looks of it, Puma clearly hadn’t forgotten him. 

Yuri got up from his seat and hugged Puma tightly, scratching behind the dragon’s ears. Puma had always loved that. 

“I see you’ve gotten your surprise!” Victor exclaimed from somewhere behind Yuri. 

Yuri couldn’t keep from smiling over at him. 

“You got Puma back?” 

“Mhm. I’m glad no one ruined the surprise. All of the staff knew,” Victor replied. 

So that’s why Otabek wasn’t worried. 

“Anyway,” Victor continued, “After the competition’s over, Puma’s going to be staying here again. I talked to the advisors again, and they agreed that you having your dragon back would make you a little happier about everything going on right now.” 

Yuri smiled again, allowing the dragon to pull him protectively under one of its wings. He was really starting to look forward to the day’s competition.


End file.
